Thursday, 15 November 2012

1992: OVERKILL TRADING CARD COLLECTION - PART ONE (Marvel UK)

One of the many must-have fads to infect comics in the early 1990s (along with pricy cover-enhancements and silly cardboard discs) were trading cards. Possibly better known as bubble gum/ chewing gum cards. Except without the mysterious pink food stuff.

The ultra-expansionist Marvel even snapped-up the two big players in the trading card business, Fleer and Skybox, to corner the market. And sold them both, at a loss, a few years later. Meanwhile, long-established card people Topps briefly expanded into the comic book business.

MARVEL UK's fortnightly OVERKILL (the British manifestation of the Genesis 92 line) got into the act with a set of cover-mounted (in a little, unsealed, plastic bag) cards, illustrated by Gary Frank, free with issues 12-14.

Marvel UK published a few more freebie card sets (a 3D set for later issues of Overkill and individual cards polybagged with some of the US titles) but never had a chance to produce their own full set. A set of original Spider-man-themed cards were presented free, also as a cover-mount, across several issues of THE ESSENTIAL SPIDER-MAN around the same time.

Needless to say, Marvel New York pretty much ignored the British characters and, with the exception of Death's Head (featured in a previous Starlogged post), didn't feature them in US card sets.

Over the next few days, I'll post a complete set of the Overkill cards here. I've presented them larger than their original size to really showcase Frank's art.

* Shooter originally announced his new comic as PLASM which - instantly - incurred the wrath of Marvel's lawyers who claimed copyright infringement. Their complaint: That readers might confuse it with Marvel UK's PLASMER. After burning through a shed-load of monies, and a slight name change, Shooter's outfit won out.

SLOW ROBOT

Welcome to STARLOGGED!
It's a repository, and celebration, of Geek Media (mostly print) from the 'Star Age': that pre-millennial period between, roughly, 1972 (the opening of Marvel UK) and 1999 (the release of The Phantom Menace... and the end of innocence). But, of course, we'll bend the rules when we want to.
I only reproduce long out-of-print items for historical reference. I don't include anything that's currently in-print, is likely to be reprinted or otherwise commercially exploited by the copyright holder.
Comments and contributions are most welcome.